japaneseenglishdubpredictionlandfandomcom-20200213-history
JEDPL Reviews: Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan
In the days of old, people feared change; from dub name changes, to super rare phat chocolately fudge-coated mega super plot twists, to Megadeth after their frontman became a huge prick, and so forth. Folks have yet to still conquer said fear, although I am getting ahead of myself. {clears throat} The one who stood at the helm and ruled the Night Parade of One Trillion Soccer Moms, was known as the Führer of ch-ch-ch-changes... And no, I am not making a Fullmetal Alchemist joke. It would sound trite... {clears throat... again} They had another name for him, which is more or less a condescending title... the Lord of Mass Hysteria and Censorship... Alfred R. Kahn. Yeah, who'd you asshats think it was? Carl Macek!? Ahahahahaha... oh, wait, I don't think you guys know who that was. Rest in peace... Bonjour, mesdemoiselles! This is your Celestial Monarch speaking, Ouroboros. After a string of blog posts and much anticipation, I bring forth to you all on this Saturated Saturday a review so biased you have to wonder if I even decided to watch the series or not... and I think I was describing Sword Art Online, THAT'LL BE ANOTHER TIME, YOU FARTKNOCKERS!!!!!! Aaaaanyway, this won't be as long as previous evaluations, considering the length of the source material and, well, not much will be discussed about. Sorry if you were expecting some sort of convoluted, extravagant festival out of this show. I keep getting your hopes up, and I gots no idea why. First of all, before I begin the review, I honestly want to thank everybody on Wikia for doing such tremendous jobs. Without you studious people, we would never have sources considerably more reliable than our "archnemeses" at Wikipedia... yes, I'm interpreting things my way. Close friends? Pffft! But most importantly, I want to thank the likes of NaruIchi, Julayla, and also Nelsonma for contributing to the Animapredictview Wiki. If I was all alone on my island of imagination, this place wouldn't be as expanded as much. Love you guys very much, and I wanna see to it that you keep on doing what you do best. Cheesy? Yes. Contrived? Uh-huh. Wholesome? Probably not. Addictive? F*** yeah! Without any further adieu or time-consuming banter, ladies and gentlemen, dudes and babes, I present to you Studio DEEN's 24-episode anime adaptation of a manga authored by one Hiroshi Shiibashi. May I introduce to you... Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan!! Season 1. The review Ah, Rise of the Yokai Clan. I had initially heard of the series via my trip to the Barnes & Nobile bookstore, where I laid eyes on its manga section. It had a vast amount of franchises to choose from, although the one that truly caught my attention was none other than this baby. The cover of the first volume made me mesmerized, because I knew I was in for a wild ride. The artwork was pretty stunning, even if there wasn't much of a plot to it. But then again, as of this writing, I've only ever read the first seven chapters. Internet's your best pal after all... Anyhoo, the plot centers on 12-year-old Rikuo Nura. Our young hero is a human by day, yet a yōkai by night; these creatures are supernatural beings in Japanese folklore, by the way. He resides in a house that is full of yōkai, a majority of which mean well and don't seem very antagonistic despite rumors. Wanting just to be an ordinary Junior High student and nothing more, Rikuo strives to be Mr. Perfect in spite of his grandfather's, the legendary Nurarihyon, wishes. The anime doesn't really pick up until the Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol, made up of the main protagonist's crazy friends including two of his bodyguards, enter Mt. Nejireme. I hate to spoil, so I'll just be leaving it at that. The anime adaptation is mostly centered around the manga's first two arcs, although for some inexplicable reason, the first episode is not about the story four years before now, kinda like how the first chapter was. It's brought up quite a bit in the future, but for the time being, viewers can find themselves only knowing about this briefly until next season, which I have yet to watch. A review for that could be sometime in the Summer, but who knows? The bottom line is: I'm suddenly getting off track for BLATANTLY OBVIOUS REASONS! In terms of characters.... Motherf***er, is the cast large! And virtually a third of the characters themselves are the yōkai. Go figure. You see, there is not only the Nura Clan, there's also branches such as: the Drunk Big Bird Clan, the Garfield Has Too Much Time on His Hands and Just Gambles Clan, the.... uh, Worf Effect yōkai, I could go on and on. As for their personalities, on the other hand... Even though they're quite noticeable, they ain't as fleshed out as I thought they would be. Kiyotsugu, for instance, is a large ham who believes that all yōkai exist; he's almost far from lying. The Nura Clan have two things on their minds: Rikuo himself, who they address as "Lord" and "Master", and the future of their own lives. Perhaps the only role I GENUINELY love on Nura ''is none other than... {gulp} Yuki Onna!!!! Call me a depraved psychopath, but Yuki Onna practically has more personality than anybody in the Main House. Sure, she can be annoying (what with clinging to Rikuo about 84% of the time), but there are things about that monster that make me grow an instant stiffie... No. Not THAT kind of stiffie, pervs: it's the type of stiffie you get when you're being coerced into spending your waking hours in a freezer listening to "Lucky Star" by Madonna. The result? You end up loving this little experience to death! Imagine my own harem involving Yuki Onna, for she'd fit right in... C'mon, the character's beautiful, threatens to freeze one of Rikuo's childhood buddies should she ever see her with him, and even f***ed Yosuzume in the ass that one time, figuratively speaking. Okay, after spending a bit too much time discussing my love for Yuki Onna/Tsurara Oikawa, I should be hitting the ol' dusty trail... Sorry, had to do it. Animation-wise, ''Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan is fairly passable, especially if you know how notorious the studio who adapted it was, and I won't go into detail about that. Unsurprisingly, the series gets a slight bump in quality whenever we get to see on-screen action, particularly during the showdowns with the Kyuso Clan and the Shikoku yokai, although I did enjoy Night Rikuo's encounter with Gyuki (originally known by Umewakamaru) as well. Special criticism should only be directed at the final episode, where there is a shot of Yuki Onna smiling; it's sort of a minor nitpick, but the way she looks as if Bratz doll swallowed half her soul almost made me cringe. Nearly every single character design compliments the series well enough and therrrrre... isn't much I can say about it. The audio presentation in itself is strong, although sometimes laughably redundant. The score that was composed by Kohei Tanaka is okay, but nothing as spectacular or memorable (aside from "Youen Naru", that is) as his work on either One Piece or Mobile Fighter G Gundam. I also heard Tanaka ripped background pieces from other movies and shit like that. Can somebody elaborate on that? Opening themes are provided by Monkey Majik, who showcased a rather boring sound in "Fast Forward", but then inverted it with the second opener, "Sunshine", which I bop my head to every once in a while. The voice acting for both the Japanese and English dubs have strengths and weaknesses, with the notable highlights being Jun Fukuyama as Night Rikuo, William Frederick as Nurarihyon, Cassandra Lee AND Yui Horie as Yuki Onna, and finally Erik Kimerer as Inugami. Speaking of which, in my humble opinion, I think Darrel Guilbeau does a better job as Rikuo's day form than Fukuyama himself. Unfortunately, Todd Haberkorn (one of my all-time favorite voice actors in anime) is underwhelming as the two characters he portrayed: Kubinashi and Tosakamaru. The acting's there, but the rest of the heart is... in space? Final verdict N:RYC's first season is quite an accomplishment, if a bit on the small side of the spectrum. Its slow pacing is more of a benefit than you might think, the art style is superb, much of the action in the latter half is breathless, and... I'm sorry if I have to beat a dead horse here, YUKI ONNA!!!!!!! These pros outweigh the cons that consisted of subpar characterization, some clichéd storytelling here and there, and an underappreciated soundtrack. Hopefully when I'm finished with Season 2, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan - Demon Capital, some of my bitching might actually change... for better or worse. Until next time, I am Ouroboros the Celestial Monarch, hoping to see you guys again later! "Screw the rules, I have green hair!" 14:08, March 15, 2014 (UTC) Ouroboros the Celestial Monarch *NOTE: YUKI ONNA SHALL BE MINE, NURA!!!! YOU WILL RUE THE DAY I POSSESS HER... Hear me? RUUUUUUUUUUUEEE THE DAY!!!!!!! {clears throat} By God, was that an overly long gag. I gotta take my fetishes somewhere else... Category:Review